Aspects of this disclosure relate generally to telecommunications, and more particularly to techniques for transmitting and receiving synchronization signals over an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.
A wireless communication network may be deployed to provide various types of services (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, etc.) to users within a coverage area of the network. In some implementations, one or more access points (e.g., corresponding to different cells) provide wireless connectivity for access terminals (e.g., cell phones) that are operating within the coverage of the access point(s). In some implementations, peer devices provide wireless connectively for communicating with one another.
Communication between devices in a wireless communication network may be subject to interference. For a communication from a first network device to a second network device, emissions of radio frequency (RF) energy by a nearby device may interfere with reception of signals at the second network device. For example, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) device operating in an unlicensed RF band that is also being used by a Wi-Fi device may experience significant interference from the Wi-Fi device, and/or can cause significant interference to the Wi-Fi device.
Some modes of communication may enable communications between a base station and a user equipment (UE) over an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, or over different radio frequency spectrum bands (e.g., a licensed radio frequency spectrum band and/or an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band) of a cellular network. With increasing data traffic in cellular networks that use a licensed radio frequency spectrum band, offloading of at least some data traffic to an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band may provide a cellular operator with opportunities for enhanced data transmission capacity. An unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band may also provide service in areas where access to a licensed radio frequency spectrum band is unavailable.
In some wireless networks, certain transmission procedures may not be permitted over an unlicensed frequency spectrum band. As such, a UE may be unable to properly receive and determine synchronization information for a network entity and/or cell. As a result, the UE may be unable to properly connect to the network entity and/or cell. Thus, improvements in discovery and synchronization procedures may be desired.